In addition to intense tournament action in their three flagship titles, Capcom also provided a look at the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter IV with a new build at Capcom Cup this past weekend. Unlike the other location tests, unfortunately, a full list of official changes wasn’t easy to see with so many people in attendance, leaving those who weren’t able to be there themselves reliant on impressions from other members of the fighting game community. Two such members were our very own Terry “Kineda” Ng and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi of Team Mad Catz. Below, you’ll find short lists of changes for both Akuma (their character of choice) and Ryu, as well as impressions on how the tweaks and new gameplay additions felt in use. [hr]

Changes

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Akuma

st.MK forces opponent to stand

Demon Flip to EX Zanku Hadouken

EX Tatsu’s vacuum increased

Teleport unchanged

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Ryu

First hit of j.MP juggles opponent

cr.MK reduced from -3 to -2 on block

EX Tatsu’s vacuum increased

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Impressions

Akuma

Kineda: st.MK allows for new combo opportunities but in the current build pushes the opponent too far back for anything significant to connect. Capcom needs to adjust the amount of pushback after hit. Delayed wake-up and the ability to punish divekick easier (hurtbox increased 10%), significantly affects Akuma’s vortex style. Being swept by cr.HK isn’t such a threat anymore. Akuma players will need to rely on a stronger ground game in Ultra. Tokido: The biggest change for Akuma is the new delayed wake-up mechanic. Akuma’s style is to knockdown your opponent and then defeat them with okizeme. I will continue to try to main Akuma in Ultra, but may test other characters as well.

Ryu

Kineda: Allows for some fancy juggle combos such as Jump Strong (2 hits) -> Jump Strong (1 hit) -> Tatsu (2 hits) for a 5-hit combo that does roughly 225 damage. cr.MK -> Hadouken is still not a true block string. We were still able to EX Shoryuken in-between the string in this current build. [hr] Feel free to let us know what you think of these updates in the comments below.